Thursday, May 09, 2013

On Stephen Hawking And Boycotting Israel

There's much bigger news out there today, but one item that merits a bit of attention involves noted British scientist Stephen Hawking giving in the Israel Derangement Syndrome and deciding to participate in boycotting Israeli academics and conferences.

The 71-year-old Hawking is a world-renowned theoretical physicist and former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He's perhaps more known worldwide for being able to continue his academic career in spite of being a victim of motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for the past 50 years, and is only able to communicate with the world due to a special computer-based system.

Professor Hawking had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president's conference, Facing Tomorrow, a well known academic event sponsored by Israeli president Shimon Peres, and timed to coincide and celebrate Peres's 90th birthday in June.

Pro-Palestinian professors, activists and sufferers of Israel Derangement Syndrome (of which there are many in British academia) found out about it and put fierce pressure on Professor Hawking to cancel out and make a strong statement supporting the academic boycott of all things Israel. Hawking originally sent a message canceling out because of his ill health, but under increased pressure from these people decided to jump in (figuratively speaking, of course) with both feet and formally approved a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine announcing "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there".

None of this should really be any surprise. However gifted he may be as a mathematician and theoretical physicist, Hawking has always been on the far Left fringe politically. A long-time Labour supporter, in the past he's referred to America's invasion of Iraq as a 'war crime', has flirted with being aa 9/11 Truther, is a major global warming groupie and in 2009 went on al-Jazeera ( AKA Jihad TV) to interview with Riz Khan and denounce Israel for defending itself against missile attacks from Gaza, saying that "the situation is like that of South Africa before 1990."

All of which goes to show that outside of his narrow field Professor Hawking is not very good at critical thinking, so none of this should be any surprise.

But it's also worth noting certain other inconsistencies.

Professor Hawking has obviously felt this way about Jews and Israel for some time now, certainly at least since 2009, and yet the Israeli conference saw fit to invite him anyway, ignoring Professor Hawking's delusional politics and concentrating on his scientific achievements.Yet Professor Hawking apparently chose not to return the favor, picking, of all things, to insult the dovish Israeli politician Shimon Peres, proof that Hawking's dislike extends viscerally to all things Israeli no matter what.

And as a final, mocking, irony, the entire computer-based communications system Professor Hawking uses to communicate his hatred of all things Israeli is Intel's Core i7, developed - wait for it -in Israel by Intel's Israeli team of computer wizards.

Apparently Professor Hawking's principles don't extend to his personal convenience and benefit. Otherwise, he would set an example by ripping the Israeli-designed Core i7 out of his computer and boycotting it in the future.

A question please, Professor Hawking? There's a word I'm having trouble with. Can you tell me what h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e spells and define it for me?

And can you tell me why there's a picture of you next to it in the dictionary?